About this project

The goal

for musicians from around the globe to collaborate bringing new orchestral music to new audiences in a new way, providing music in multiple formats via social media, including download, video and printed score culminating in our debut CD March 2014.

When finished, we plan to send our CD of new works to Music Directors, Conductors and Artistic Directors for orchestras around the world. We want to expose them to new music, new composers and encourage them to program new music.

By supporting this project you are not only help us record new orchestral music, you are getting that music into the hands of people who can take it into the concert hall.

The Premise

Composers struggle to find orchestras to play their works. Premieres of new orchestral works tend to be by composers who either are already established or have an association with the orchestra. TwtrSymphony wants to give a venue to composers everywhere to get a short sample of their music out to the world. Most music directors say they don't have time to listen to more than a couple of minutes of new, untried music. Our 140 second pieces fit perfectly into this rapid assessment. Plus, we put our music out to the general public. If the public likes it, then the composer can leverage that popularity to other orchestras bringing new audiences into the concert hall. Orchestras won't have to 'try out' composers, but can look to TwtrSymphony for what's hot.

We will also vet the scores and the parts. Often orchestras struggle with new music - finding numerous mistakes in the score adds to rehearsal time. Since TwtrSymphony will have already gone through the process of recording the music, we will have found many of those errors, allowing composers the chance to offer cleaner scores for future performances.

Orchestras struggle to perform new music. Rehearsal time costs money for the hall and the musicians. A new piece often takes more rehearsal time than a familiar piece as conductor and musicians discover the music for the first time. Add to this, an untried piece may not sell well at the box office as the audience has no idea what they're getting. TwtrSymphony approaches making music in an entirely different way, avoiding the costs of both rehearsal and concert hall rental. There isn't the need to have massive recording equipment hauled in for the recording process. Since the musicians record the music on their own time, there is no need to schedule a time when all the musicians are available.

The public is hungry for new orchestra music. Film scores and video games are filled with orchestra music. Classical music digital download sales continue to climb, new music an ever increasing portion of those sales. We believe TwtrSymphony can not only prove there is a new way to create orchestra music, we can bring more new music to the general public generating more interest in both classical music recording and live performances.

But, in order to achieve these goals, we need to prove we can do this on an aggressive schedule. To meet this schedule, we need money to offset some of the costs.

STRETCH GOAL

Violinist Judith Ingolfsson has agreed to perform as a featured soloist with TwtrSymphony. We will record a violin concerto written specifically for Ms Ingolfsson's talents. This highly energetic music will be included as a download available to every sponsor level from $25 and up.

So far, the musicians and engineers have been unpaid. The musicians have worked for a year on this project for the love of the concept. It's time they were paid something for their efforts especially since we'll be asking even more from them over the year. The sound engineers have worked miracles for the love of the music. With much more music we’ll need to process the recordings on an amplified time schedule. We will need more engineers to work on the project and they can't work for free. Administrating all the various recordings, making sure the right recordings are put with the right piece, is a lot of work. Currently a single recording can have over 200 tracks. Multiply that by 20 or more pieces and you get an idea of the administrative nightmare.

We need someone to manage all the communications from the composers, music director, musicians, and engineers.
We also want to produce videos for each of the pieces. These videos will help raise the visibility of the music. Videographers will need money to create these videos. While we are not giving the videos as specific rewards for this project, they will cost money to produce.

Then there is the cost of product. CD's cost money to make, scores and parts cost money to print. Consider we are attempting this project with over 60 musicians and over a dozen sound engineers, the goal of $20,000 is extremely small. A single two hour rehearsal of a major orchestra can cost that much in rehearsal space and musicians' pay and still not have a recording to show for it.

Some pieces will have 40 separate tracks or more which means doubling up on parts for the musicians. Plus we want to record MORE than 25 tracks. This is a really slim budget. You can help. Let's exceed the goal!

Whose Music are we Recording

The following composers are just SOME of the pieces we'll be including on this work. We are still in the process of finalizing the list.

We received over one-hundred scores in our call to scores, so recording more music is an option. Many of our musicians are solo performers in their own right, so writing concerto like works featuring these musicians is something else we have planned. There are also guest artists who would like to perform with TwtrSymphony. While each of these are projects we'd like to include, they can only happen once we've reached the main goal - a CD of new music for a new audience.

We would LIKE to include these additional pieces on the project if we get funding:

We have amazing people working on this project. They have:
· played for the President of the United States
· featured in TEDx
· premiered numerous works all over the world
· played on the soundtrack for an Oscar winning film
· recorded music for the Pixar film "Brave"
· played at
Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall (NYC)
Kennedy Center (Washington, DC)
Royal Albert Hall (London)· performed at music festivals
Celtic Connections
Aspen Music Festival
BBC Proms
· performed in countless film and television shows
· written books on music, practice technique, musicians health and much more
· Bachelor and Masters degrees
· Professors, teachers, educators at all levels
· performed with major orchestras like:
o Teatro alla Scala
o Detroit Symphony Orchestra
o Minnesota Symphony Orchestra
o BBC Symphony Orchestra
o Shen Yun Ballet Orchestra
o Teatro Petruzzelli

Here are a few of the musicians and engineers introducing themselves.

We are professional musicians and engineers trying to bring something new to the classical music world. Join us and help make a new element in orchestra music a reality.

The Music

We held a Call for Scores asking composers to submit music for this recording. Over 100 pieces were submitted. We are going through the process of selecting the right pieces for the CD. Should we exceed our goal we could potentially record even more of the submitted pieces.

Who will get the CD

Beyond all the people who donate to this project, we are going to send these CD’s to music directors, conductors and decision makers of orchestras all over the world. We hope to mail out over 300 CD’s exposing these decision makers to new music in a new way. TwtrSymphony isn’t just about creating new music, but about getting the music into the hands of people who will want to perform it live in the concert hall.

Risks and challenges

Musicians from all over the world recording their music separately, without the benefit of hearing how their part fits into the ensemble during rehearsals is extremely challenging. It often takes numerous communications between the composer, music director and musician to truly understand what is wanted. While we have accomplished this with one style of orchestral music -- our debut symphony "Birds of a Feather" -- we are branching out to new composers, new styles and new issues yet to be uncovered as a result.

We want to create a CD of new orchestra music by composers from all around the world. At just over 2 minutes per track with potentially 30 tracks of music, the musicians are going to have to learn a wide variety of pieces. The sound engineers are also going to have a lot of work to fit these styles together in the mixing room. Yet, the end result will be proof musicians from around the world can collaborate as never before.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $15 or more
About $15

An enameled Maestro Bird lapel pin, TwtrSymphony Bumper Sticker of your choice: Our logo + "TwtrSymphony - new music for a new audience in a new way" OR Our logo + "I believe in the power of music" AND a personal thank-you tweet

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

STRETCH GOAL

Everyone who donates at this level or higher

Violinist Judith Ingolfsson has agreed to perform as a featured soloist with TwtrSymphony. We will record a violin concerto written specifically for Ms Ingolfsson's talents. This highly energetic music will be included as a download available to every sponsor level from $25 and up.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $35 or more
About $35

Signed copy of the CD by the Music Director Chip Michael
+ digital downloads as they come available TwtrSymphony Window Film or Bumper Sticker of your choice + a Maestro Bird lapel pin and a personal thank-you tweet

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $60 or more
About $60

MONTHLY Updates of the project - What music is being recorded, when tracks ar sent to the engineers and an indepth look at what's happening all the way through the process.
Plus a signed copy of the CD by the Music Director Chip Michael + digital downloads as they come available + a Maestro Bird lapel pin and a personal thank-you tweet

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

MONTHLY Updates of the project - What music is being recorded, when tracks ar sent to the engineers and an indepth look at what's happening all the way through the process.
Plus a signed copy of the CD by the Music Director Chip Michael + digital downloads as they come available + TwtrSymphony Window Film or Bumper Sticker of your choice + a Maestro Bird lapel pin and a personal thank-you tweet

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Professionally bound score, signed by the composer, of any single piece of your choice from the CD. This will include a personal note from the Music Director AND the composer about the music and why this piece is an important part of our project TwtrSymphony Window Film or Bumper Sticker of your choice + a Maestro Bird lapel pin and a personal thank-you tweet

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $750 or more
About $750

TwtrSymphony "Gold New Music" Donor on the CD and website + become an Partner of TwtrSymphony + signed copy of CD + Maestro Bird Angel Lapel pin +Professionally bound score, signed by the composer, of any single piece of your choice from the CD

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

We will compose and record a single movement work dedicated to you or someone of your choice + TwtrSymphony "Silver Power of Music" Partner listed on CD and website + signed copy of CD + Special Edition Maestro Bird Donor Lapel pin

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

Will we compose a multi-movement work dedicated to you or someone of your choice + TwtrSymphony "Gold Power of Music" Partner listed on CD and website + signed copy of CD + Special Edition Maestro Bird Donor Lapel pin

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

TwtrSymphony Patron listed on the CD and website + become an honorary member of TwtrSymphony + access to Insider videos and internal communications + signed copy of CD + Special Edition Maestro Bird Patron Lapel pin